The Adventures of Pinocchio

When a book is made into a movie, certain scenes and overall big pictures sometimes get “lost in translation.” This certainly is the case for Carlo Collodi’s story The Adventures of Pinocchio. Many things occur in the book that do not take place in the Disney movie Pinocchio, originally produced in 1940, and rereleased in 1992. A possible reason for some of the changes could regard audiences. The Adventures of Pinocchio was written in Italian in 1883. Perhaps that is why the book focuses more on morality and is a teach-you-a-lesson about the consequences of being bad kind of book, while the movie more gently tries to get the same message across by adding and deleting scenes from the original work.

A change from book to movie occurs right at the beginning of the film. In the book, Geppetto buys the wood that is to become Pinocchio from Mastro Antonio—a character left out of the movie entirely (1). The movie version begins with Jiminy Cricket, as he is called in the movie, singing about wishing upon stars. In the book, he is known as the Talking Cricket. Pinocchio is already crafted, fitted with marionette strings, and is sitting on a shelf. In the book, as soon as Pinocchio has feet—he is already alive—he runs out the door (6); however, in the movie, Geppetto, who controls him with the marionette strings, dances him around. I find it strange that Geppetto makes the puppet (while he controls him) kick the cat, Figaro—who is not in the original book—causing him to fall off the steps. How does Geppetto expect Pinocchio to be a good boy if at the beginning of his functioning he (Pinocchio) is made to kick innocent cats? After Geppetto dances the puppet around for a bit he goes to bed, but before he falls asleep, he wishes upon a star. He wishes that the puppet was a real boy. The star comes into the window and is a fairy with blue hair. The fairy grants the wish, giving the puppet life. The stipulation the fairy gives Pinocchio is that he can become a real boy when he proves himself and learns to choose between right and wrong. This requirement is the same in the book (55). A difference in this film scene and the book is the appearance of the fairy. In the book, Pinocchio initially sees the fairy much later (32).